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Book Description

A lyrical, original fairy tale for all ages, with a cast of characters you won’t soon forget.

In the Kingdom of the Wolves, the Wolf King hunts. Roland, Hunter of Men, is looking for a witch-born girl. As the story passed down from his own father goes, the witch is the only one who knows how to release him from the curse: like all weremen, the Wolf King is trapped in the form of a wolf except during the full moon.

In the Weirding Wood, the witch queen’s son seeks a new companion. Born without any talent for witchcraft and magic, Prince Baylis is obsessed with all things that come from it, hoarding magical artifacts and beings alike. He has heard rumor of a living poppet, a spell crafted from parts salvaged from the dead, sewn together with moonlight--and he will stop at nothing to possess her.

In a seaside village, a young man is stalked by nightmares of the beast that killed his father. When the wolves finally come for Faolin, their bite transforms him into the very monster he loathes and fears the most, confirming the legacy Faolin wished to be a lie: he is the heir to the Wolf King's throne.

Exiled to the Everwood Forest, Faolin encounters a girl made of patchwork. With snow-white hair and mismatched eyes, and moon-bright stitches all over her body, the patchwork girl has set out from her village in search of her true name. Together, she and Faolin brave the wilderness, witchcraft, and magic of the Everwood Forest, drawn along their journey by unseen hands.

But the spell that created the patchwork girl is not quite finished. Memories of lives she never lived haunt the poppet’s secondhand flesh, whispering their stories. As her journey wears on, the memories become louder, weakening the magic that holds her together. The patchwork girl wants nothing more than to help Faolin break his curse, but she knows her time is running out: she must find a way to silence the memories, before she literally falls to pieces.

For fans of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book and Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn, The Poppet and the Lune is an enchanting adventure of self-discovery, and a captivating, original fairy tale for all ages.

A lyrical, original fairy tale for all ages, with a cast of characters you won’t soon forget.

In the Kingdom of the Wolves, the Wolf King hunts. Roland, Hunter of Men, is looking for a witch-born girl. As the story passed down from his own father goes, the witch is the only one who knows how to release him from the curse: like all weremen, the Wolf King is trapped in the form of a wolf except during the full moon.

In the Weirding Wood, the witch queen’s son seeks a new companion. Born without any talent for witchcraft and magic, Prince Baylis is obsessed with all things that come from it, hoarding magical artifacts and beings alike. He has heard rumor of a living poppet, a spell crafted from parts salvaged from the dead, sewn together with moonlight--and he will stop at nothing to possess her.

In a seaside village, a young man is stalked by nightmares of the beast that killed his father. When the wolves finally come for Faolin, their bite transforms him into the very monster he loathes and fears the most, confirming the legacy Faolin wished to be a lie: he is the heir to the Wolf King's throne.

Exiled to the Everwood Forest, Faolin encounters a girl made of patchwork. With snow-white hair and mismatched eyes, and moon-bright stitches all over her body, the patchwork girl has set out from her village in search of her true name. Together, she and Faolin brave the wilderness, witchcraft, and magic of the Everwood Forest, drawn along their journey by unseen hands.

But the spell that created the patchwork girl is not quite finished. Memories of lives she never lived haunt the poppet’s secondhand flesh, whispering their stories. As her journey wears on, the memories become louder, weakening the magic that holds her together. The patchwork girl wants nothing more than to help Faolin break his curse, but she knows her time is running out: she must find a way to silence the memories, before she literally falls to pieces.

For fans of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book and Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn, The Poppet and the Lune is an enchanting adventure of self-discovery, and a captivating, original fairy tale for all ages.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Poppet and the Lune is nothing short of a rejuvenation of a dying genre. It is fresh, original and brilliantly plotted..." -- Word Vagabond Book Reviews

"...atmospheric and wonderful and so, so well done... Franklin's writing is beautiful." -- The Bookworm Shelf

"From the very first few lines, the atmosphere rolled out under me like a lush carpet... invading the reader's mind... Come and dip yourself in this story of love, loyalty, and hope." -- Cabinet des Fées Magazine

From the Inside Flap

A girl constructed from the remains of a tragedy, given life by witchcraft and magic...

A cowardly boy running from his destiny, trapped in the form of a wolf...

When the witch who made her is murdered, will the patchwork girl ever discover the purpose of her creation?

Will the wolf boy, Faolin, ever find a way to shed his wolf skin and become human again?

Join Faolin and the patchwork girl on their extraordinary adventure through the Everwood Forest, where they must face all manner of monsters and men, danger and opportunity, and learn for themselves the difference between them. An enchanting story of love, loyalty, and hope, this is a true fairy tale for adults and children of all ages.

(From my blog at [...] - Reviews of independent and small press publications.)

After tragedy strikes a small village, killing all of its children, the villagers strike a deal with their local witch to create a new child, a patchwork of those who died, to replace those they have lost. With great reluctance, the witch complies, and soon produces Elizabeth, the "Poppet" referred to in the title. The witch is killed before the process is completed, leaving Elizabeth with many unanswered questions and a fragile identity. Throughout her many adventures, her search for the truth of her existence remains her main motivation.

The "Lune" is Faolin, a reluctant werewolf who becomes Elizabeth's loyal companion, protector and friend. He has a compelling story of his own, neatly sidestepping the categories of mere sidekick or romantic interest (although he does, in part, fill both these roles). In fact, all of the characters in The Poppet and the Lune resist being pigeonholed, either with intriguing backstories or with a pervasive aura of mystery that leaves one wondering about them long after the story is over.

The Poppet and the Lune is nothing short of a rejuvenation of a dying genre. It is fresh, original and brilliantly plotted, with characters that the reader cares about easily and deeply. It steers clear of most of the common clichés, and offering up genuine surprises in their place. I honestly believed that I knew where the main character's story arch was leading, but the ending was both different and better than I expected.

It's hard for me to review this book without sounding completely giddy and uncritical, so I hope the reader will understand that this is a very unusual reaction for me. As an editor and reviewer, my first instinct is to pick apart whatever I'm reading, which often makes it harder to slip completely into the atmosphere of a book. In addition, I had more or less given up on the fantasy genre in the late `90s, when all original thought appeared to have been bred out of it.

A few small criticisms: the book would have benefitted from a more thorough proofreading, although the flaws that have been overlooked are not more than many conventional works contain. These may also have been corrected in more recent editions.

My second concern is not directly with this novel, but with the discrepancy in quality between Franklin's novel-length and shorter works. This novel obviously received a great deal of care and attention, and I would love to see that same attention applied to her short stories, which often appear to be more impulsive and unpolished. I would like to see that gap in quality closed so that Franklin's shorter works, as well as standing more firmly on their own, can serve as better ambassadors to her wonderful novels.Read more ›

Created from the remains of a tragedy that struck a simple village, the patchwork girl is a being of pure magic. When she leaves her home(s), her journey takes us through the Everwood Forest, into the clutches of Father Time, the depths of the castle of the charming Prince Baylis and into the very pits of the kingdom of the Weremen.

From the remains of the other children, she eventually discovers herself, and we along with her.

If I had any critiques to make, is that the novel has several sections where I felt it could have been the thrilling end to any fantasy novel, only to discover that I had 40% remaining on my e-reader's progress bar. These would have made equally amazing novellas, or two fantastic novels.

This is a charming read that would satisfy any fantasy lover and thrill them to their fingertips. Madeline Claire Franklin is absolutely a new rising star of fantasy.

The Poppet and the Lune takes fantasy away from the more typical swords and sorcery and into something more magical and philosophical. Aside from the storyline, the author's lyrical and mellifluous writing style makes this book a pleasure to read.

This is a story of a girl who is created from the parts of many children, yet who doesn't know just who or what she is. When the children of a small village are killed by a tragic accident, the parents of the children convince the local witch to bring a new child to life. The witch salvages the undamaged parts of the dead children and makes a patchwork girl, a girl who is then shared by the families of the dead children. She is named Elizabeth by the families, a name which never seems to resonate with her.

When the families have other children, they lose interest in the patchwork girl, and eventually, she leaves the village in an attempt to find someplace in which she fits. Meeting Faolin, a somewhat cowardly wereman, she goes from adventure to adventure while trying to discover her place in the world.

The strength of this novel is in the wordsmithing. The author turns poetry into prose. The first chapter flows along as if in a song. The words are lovingly selected and placed just so to evoke the strongest reaction and feeling of the reader. The rest of the book flows as well from this outstanding beginning.

The patchwork girl, with her mismatched eyes, is one of the most endearing characters about whom I have read in quite some time. I felt for her. I understood her dreams and needs. I wanted to reach into the novel and speak to her, to reassure her. For someone who has a dearth of her own emotions, she emotes to others. And given this lack of emotions, given that she cannot understand something as basic as love, it is amazing that the author is able to create such an emotive and likable character.

The other main character, Faolin, while likable, is not quite as believable. While we are told he is afraid not for himself but for the patchwork girl, in fact, he is frightened for himself, given his actions. And his leap at the end of the novel is not as well developed.

While I loved the writing, and while I savored every paragraph in and of itself, taken as a whole, I do think the novel could be tightened up a bit. There were a few times where the same thing was repeated over and over when the point was extremely well made the first time is was made. The action sequences were better, though, direct and well-paced.

This book is a gem. It is a joy to read, and the patchwork girl is truly an enjoyable heroine. I recommend this to anyone wanting a unique and fresh story of self-discovery.Read more ›

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a big lover of fairy tales. I have three entire shelves dedicated just to fairy tale retellings, and then two more dedicated to collections of fairy tales. When I was contacted by the author for a review and read the summary, I knew I had to read this book. The Poppet and the Lune sounded right up my alley, so I accepted and waited impatiently for my review copy to grace my mail box.

The wait was so totally worth it and I am so glad I read this novel.

The Poppet and the Lune is going to be one of the novels I set time aside for every year to reread, or one that I'll simply pull out every now and then just to reread my favorite passages. I actually tried to read it as slowly as I could allow, simply because I never wanted it to end. I kept attacking it with post-it notes to mark the sentences I loved so much, to the point where they got in the way of me holding the book and turning the pages. It's going to be a book that I treasure deeply.

The writing style actually reminded me quite of a bit of someone having written down a storyteller's verbal tale. There are times in the novel when the omnipresent narrator refers to hirself and the readers, as if zie were truly right there telling us the story, and fills in the gaps of knowledge the two main leads don't have, which adds to my impression, and I loved it all the more for that. Franklin so clearly nails the fairy tale narrative styles that as soon as I read the opening I knew I was going to love this book. The small village surrounded by woods prowled by wolves, the lone cabin in the woods where a magical person lives, a deconstruction of a prince who should be the archetype of the fairy tale true love, and the other various magical things and places the heroes encounter on their journey, all of it is classic the fairy tale narrative done beautifully. It's atmospheric and wonderful and so, so well done.

To add to this, Franklin's writing is beautiful, with sentences such as:

"The unreality of the past weeks lifted like a fog, but its residue remained. All of the past is like that, but most especially the parts that are out of the ordinary." pg. 248

"The patchwork girl felt as if she were a broad expanse of canvas, rolled up in a desk drawer somewhere-maybe forgotten, maybe hidden, maybe thrown away. There were things she could never be; she could never be a sculpture, or a piece of jewelry, or a tool for work, or fine linen... but there were things she could become." pg. 48

To expand on that last quote, I loved the patchwork girl's journey to finding herself. In a way, she's got a very strong personality of her own, but the memories of the children she's made of keep coming back and it makes her wonder if she's truly her own person. Can a person really be their own being when they're made up of several other beings? Faolin's story is a parallel to the patchwork girl's; he too is trying to find himself after being changed into a wolf, trying to find footing in a strange new environment. The identity narratives in this story were so well done that I cheered whenever the patchwork girl or Faolin came closer to understanding themselves. Their journey is a long and often hard process, but the pay off is so satisfying.

It's not just the main characters who are well written. The secondary characters have their own backstories detailed in the book, making them come alive just as much as the leads themselves. Perhaps the strongest example of this was with the Weirding family, tragic and yet awesome to read about all at the same time. It really was nice to see Franklin spending as much time on the secondary characters as she did the leads.

I'm pretty hard to please when it comes to romance in novels, I'll admit. It's very rare that a couple in any form of media captures my heart because of how well they're written. This was not a problem here. The relationship between the patchwork girl and Faolin is slowly developed, from a comfortable friendship and companionship to a strong love. They work so well together; the patchwork girl, fearless and courageous, sure of herself and yet at the same time not, and Faolin, shy and sweet and cowardly but with hidden strength. It's such a well written romance that I had a huge silly grin on my face whenever there were hints of their developing romance. At the same time, though, it's explicitly mentioned that should one leave the other, they would be okay. They don't exist simply for each other. Probably my favorite quote in the story is the one where it's said that the patchwork girl was whole before she met Faolin, and she would continue to be whole even without him there. That is how you do a good romance.

I think the thing I loved best, if I could narrow it down to just one, was how the story was mostly character driven. That tends to be my preferred style in stories. I like plot driven works as well, but when you get down to it, I love to focus more on the characters and their personalities and their relationships with others. The characters drive this story, leading themselves to places where they grow and learn and make the plot happen, the plot doesn't just blindly pull them along. It truly is the story about the patchwork girl and Faolin, and what a story it is.

The Poppet and the Lune is a beautiful, well done fairy tale that gives readers a strong, empowering woman lead, a guy lead I loved, a solid romance and world building, and wonderful writing. It was heartbreaking at times and other times I downright cheered when something good happened. It feels like a genuine fairy tale you would read in a collection. I am actually hesitant to put this strictly in one age group; I feel like it's a story that can charm and enchant readers of all ages, and simply calling it young adult or adult would be doing a disservice to the story. I'll be bothering all my friends to read it and I cannot recommend it enough.Read more ›

More About the Author

Madeline Claire Franklin has been writing, making movies, telling lies, and otherwise creating stories for as long as she can remember. She holds a BA in Media Studies/Production with a minor in Anthropology from the University at Buffalo, where she further expanded her storytelling capacity through film, animation, and the study of the human race.

In addition to her love of telling stories and researching dead people, Madeline is an avid traveler and lover of foreign cultures. She has contracted salmonella in Costa Rica, was bitten by a goat in the Sahara Desert, got salt in her eyes at the Dead Sea, and her pants once caught on fire while she was walking down a street in Spain. None of this deters her.